Wireless communication systems are widely used to provide voice and data services for multiple users using a variety of access terminals such as cellular telephones, laptop computers and various multimedia devices. Such communication systems can encompass local area networks, such as IEEE 802.11 networks, cellular telephone and/or mobile broadband networks. The communication systems can use one or more multiple access techniques, such as Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) and others. Mobile broadband networks can conform to a number of system types or partnerships such as, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), 3rd-Generation standards (3G), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), IEEE 802.11 networks, Evolution-Data Optimized EV-DO, or Long Term Evolution (LTE).
As wireless networks have become more pervasive, many user devices are now configured to access more than one wireless network. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, user device 102 is configured to access three networks, for example IEEE 802.11 network 104, IEEE 802.16 network 106, and 3GPP network 108. In such a multiple-interface device, each interface may involve other network technologies, such as, but are not limited to GSM, GPRS, LTE, WiMAX, CDMA2000, WLAN, etc. These individual wireless technologies may use different wireless access technologies that include but are not limited to TDMA, CDMA, or OFDMA.
When multiple interfaces in a user device share the same battery, and if power consumption is optimized only within each individual interface technology, the user device may consume more power than a user device having a single interface because all interfaces may be simultaneously active and/or periodically receive transmissions from each of their respective networks. In the field of wireless communications systems, what is needed are systems and methods that better utilize power consumption for multiple-interface devices.